Man Living In Building Faces Charges In Fatal Fire

By JACOB H. FRIES

Published: May 25, 2002

A man who investigators say smoked crack in the gutted first floor of a Brooklyn apartment building was charged yesterday with sparking a fire that killed a 63-year-old man Wednesday night.

The man who was arrested, Jeffrey Lundy, 30, apparently laid a still-smoldering crack pipe on an old mattress, which caught fire around 11 p.m. and quickly engulfed the three-story building at 520 17th Street in Windsor Terrace, the authorities said.

The victim, Richard Lang Sr., 63, was found in his second-floor apartment when the two-alarm blaze was brought under control shortly before 1 a.m., the authorities said. Among the 100 firefighters responding to the fire was the man's son, Richard Lang Jr., a nine-year veteran assigned to Battalion 48 in Brooklyn.

From the outset, fire marshals said that the amount and intensity of the flames raised suspicions. The blaze destroyed the building where Mr. Lang lived, as well as two neighboring row houses.

Investigators interviewed Mr. Lundy on the night of the fire, but did not arrest him until late Thursday night, the police said. During questioning, they said, Mr. Lundy told them that he had tried to smother the flames with a blanket, but was unable to keep them from spreading. Finally, the police said, he gave up and left the building without notifying anyone of the fire.

The owner of the building, Bill Laux, 60, described Mr. Lundy as a troubled man who was addicted to drugs and refused to leave -- despite Mr. Laux's insistence and renovation work that gutted the first floor where Mr. Lundy lived. Mr. Laux said he never took any legal action to evict Mr. Lundy, who is related to Mr. Laux's wife. ''I wanted him out more than anybody else,'' Mr. Laux said. ''He had already almost set the house on fire a couple of times.''

Mr. Laux and other neighbors said Mr. Lundy had once knocked some doors in his own apartment off their hinges and tore sinks from the wall. They said his brother, Richard, had shared the apartment with him, and that the two would sometimes beat each other with wrenches. A few months ago, they added, Richard Lundy moved out, leaving Jeffrey Lundy alone with his pit bull, Percy.

Mr. Laux said Mr. Lundy's bare apartment was often littered with dog feces, trash, syringes and other drug paraphernalia. Neighbors said he was constantly feuding with people on the block, asking for money or a cigarette. ''Every time he came up the block, he was hot,'' said Frank Cammarano, a neighbor whose son lived on the third floor, above Mr. Lundy.

The one person who got along with him, neighbors said, was the man who died, Mr. Lang, a retired gravedigger who generally kept to himself. Mr. Lundy would run errands for Mr. Lang, picking up pizza and beer for a little pocket money, they said. ''I told Richie the guy's no good,'' Mr. Cammarano said. ''But Richie didn't listen. He would buy him pizza, invite him up for dinner and now what? One guy is dead and the other is locked up.''